This weekend the Liberal Democrats formally adopted their candidates Jonathan Davies, Alasdair Hill and Marisha Ray to fight the seats of Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon and Chipping Barnet respectively.
"If Simon Danczuk cannot stand for Labour, then that's good news for our town. The Liberal Democrats are fighting hard to win in June. We have dozens of new members and activists ready to give Rochdale the fresh start it deserves. "We fully expect Danczuk to stand as an Independent to pocket close to a whopping £40,000 redundancy package. It would be interesting to see whether the local Labour Party back him as they have continued to do throughout the scandals that have dragged our town down."
I got to know Theresa May reasonably well in government, former Deputy Prime Mimnister Nick Clegg said today. We sat next to each other around the cabinet table for half a decade. I witnessed her strengths - methodical, thorough - and her weaknesses too - technocratic, inflexible. But generally I found she was someone who would stick to what she had said. So I was surprised when she went back on her word by calling an early election - and did so with such specious excuses. Clearly the temptation of taking advantage of Jeremy Corbyn's poor public standing - and getting her excuses in early before the Brexit bad news hits - was too great. Far from putting the country first, her decision was an old fashioned wheeze to secure narrow party political advantage. But what it shows above all is a growing, swaggering complacency on the part of the Conservatives. They expect a coronation, not a contest. They expect voters will give them a majority with the minimum explanation as to why. They assume they can pull the woo
South Lakes MP Tim Farron has slammed the Conservative government for removing housing benefit from 100 young people across Cumbria. The Liberal Democrats have committed to reversing the cut, which took effect from April 2017.
Local MP Tim Farron has called for an urgent cash injection for our social care system, as a second care home in Kendal has been rated 'inadequate' in a month.